


Malide Drabbles

by firedancer34



Category: Throne of Glass Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Drabbles, F/F, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, SEE TRIGGERS IN EACH CHAPTER
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:48:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29055396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/firedancer34/pseuds/firedancer34
Summary: One of you lovely readers requested some Malide drabbles.
Relationships: Manon Blackbeak/Elide Lochan
Comments: 1
Kudos: 17





	1. The Ride

**Author's Note:**

> OK first of all I am beyond stoked that I have new readers still coming across my story and loving it. You all are beautiful lovely people. Good news btw! I am already 3 chapters in to the next story! Bad news: work ramped up and I am working a LOT of overtime so writing is limited and this is why I am trying to get more chapters written before I start posting this time around, that way I can give you all a more regular post schedule! 
> 
> But someone requested drabble and these are perfect to keep my muse in inspired and write in the short bit of time I am still awake in the evenings lol. I don't have anything planned out so this will be my dump site for anythign that comes to mind or feel free to drop a possible prompt. No promises, but I will def see what I can do! Rating may change later on but for now this first one is tame. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

Elide had tears in her eyes. Sure it could have been the wind, but the wrap around sunglasses Manon had carefully slid onto her face, negated that excuse. She didn’t mind one bit. Not when she was finally,  _ finally _ feeling the wind on her face.

For as long as she could remember, the raven haired woman had wanted to ride. An unfortunate accident, and no insurance thanks to her dead-beat uncle and legal guardian, had unfortunately led to permanently compromised mobility in her left foot. Unable to shift gears, let alone bear the weight of any bike while stopped, her dreams of riding one were just another thing she’d accepted would never happen. 

Then Manon had rolled up on her eye-catching red Ducati Panigale, and stopped in front of the coffee shop Elide worked at. Dark leathers hugged an obviously lithe and toned frame, stark white hair spilled out from the helmet as it was removed, and stunning features had Elide nearly burning her own hand as she over-poured the coffee she was making while she stared out the window. How the sexy goddess in leathers found her charming enough to flirt with she’ll never understand. Elide was just thankful her lack of physical coordination didn’t extend to her tongue, as she successfully bantered back with the sharp, dry witted woman. 

A spontaneous coffee date on her break, led to another the next day, then dinner at the end of the week, to nights spent in each other's arms, and then a shared home barely three months later. Manon had oddly enough, sold her beloved bike when they’d moved in together. She’d only mentioned it in passing, but never brought it up again after that, and Elide hadn’t pushed, though she did miss seeing her girlfriend in leathers. 

Then the woman had pulled up this morning in a black Suzuki V-Strom, and Elide had stared hopefully at the helmet that was clipped to the bike’s passenger seat. Manon’s first bike, as sexy as it was, had no such accommodation. A pleased smirk had lifted the leather clad woman’s lips as she took in Elide’s reaction to her newest acquisition. When she sauntered forward, the smirk grew as she watched Elide’s breathing pick up a little, eyes now fixed on her swaggering hips. 

“See something you like witchling?” she’d purred into Elide’s ear.

It was a private joke between them- Manon claiming Elide had bewitched her and Elide claiming she was far too young to be a proper witch. In that moment however, Elide was convinced her lover was the  _ real  _ witch. She couldn’t decide where to focus her eyes, the bike, leather encased legs, the lips so close to her own. 

She’d gone with those teasing lips and had just about combusted on the spot given everything that had been rushing through her in that moment. Her underwear had definitely become a casualty and she grinned into the wind as her thighs tightened around Manon’s, her hands creeping a little higher up her sides. The bike wobbled ever so slightly, and Elide chuckled into the shoulder over her lover, who threw her a mock glare in the side mirror. Before focusing back on the winding highway that carved a concrete trail along the boundary between mountains and the sea. Pine and redwood mixed with the salty freshness of the sea, and the headiness of it all renewed the tears as Elide tipped her head back and howled in joy. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Abraxos is in accident and Manon is having difficulty coping.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You folks are just so cool. I posted the first chapter on Tumblr and was totally not expecting that kind of response. Thank you all, you are lovely. Here's a longer one shot (ok so these are not quite drabbles lmao). 
> 
> This is some definite hurt/comfort content (see warning below). Please forgive mistakes, sorry there is no title...my brain is dead and nothing I come up with sounds even halfway decent rn.
> 
> TRIGGER WARNING: mention of PTSD, triggers, panic attacks, description of an animal injured (There is no dying here!)

Elide rushed into the veterinary hospital as quickly as possible and found that Asterin sitting next to Manon, talking to her in hushed tones. The blonde’s eyes snapped towards the front door as soon as it opened, and met Elide’s worried but she didn’t stop speaking her cousin, and Elide noted that while Asterin was carefully not touching Manon, she was tapping her finger on the arm-rest next to her in a steady even rhythm. 

The raven haired woman took a moment to collect her breath, grateful that her wife’s cousin was off duty today and had been here with her in Elide’s delayed absence. She had no idea what exactly had happened- only that there had been an accident and Abraxos had been badly hurt- but Manon was curled in on herself, head in hands that were bloodstained and shaking. She was also flinching at every sudden noise and Elide knew she had to get Manon somewhere quieter. 

Ignoring her impulse to go straight to her wife’s side, she instead went up to the desk. “Excuse me.”

“Can I help you miss?”

“My wife is Manon Blackbeak, that’s her over there. Her partner Abraxos was brought in a little while ago.”

“As I told her cousin, Abraxos is in surgery, and we won’t know anything for another hour or so.”

Elide nodded, then leaned in and lowered her voice. “I understand that. The thing is, my wife is retired military and Abraxos is a retired MWD. She was his handler, and they both were discharged on medical after barely surviving an IED he sniffed out. Do you have someplace quieter I can take her? Like...right now?” she asked with a pointed look back at her wife, her tone urgent. 

The receptionist followed her gaze, took a moment to really look at the scene before her and then nodded. “There’s a room through the doors for families who have just lost a pet and need some time to collect themselves. When you are ready, head to those double doors and I’ll let you in,”   
  


“Thank you,” Elide breathed out in relief. Then she moved over to her wife and carefully crouched down in front of her. “Hey babe,” she said quietly, her hands resting on her own thighs for the time being.

There was a quiet sniffle, and then finally red rimmed eyes lifted to meet her own. “I’m sorry it took me so long, we were in the courtroom and I had my phone on silent. Ghislaine took over and I got here as quickly as I could. Is it okay if I hug you?”

Pained eyes furrowed in frustration as Manon silently shook her head, her rocking increasing slightly. “Hey shhhhh, it’s ok. We talked about this. We go at your pace no pressure between us. How about we go someplace quieter though ok? Someplace safer?”

Manon’s eyes tracked around the wide open room with multiple entry points, and she swallowed hard. “I’ve got your back Manon,” Asterin murmured quietly, seeing the frantic look. 

“Please,” was all the pale woman said hoarsely and Elide gave her a reassuring smile and began to climb back to her feet. Her ankle twisted wrong however and she inhaled sharply as her body began to pitch to the side. 

But then Manon’s strong, scarred hands were there, steadying her and helping her the rest of the way up and Elide gave her a proud, loving look. Burnt gold eyes shifted away, and Elide let it be. Asterin rose with her and took up position behind and to the side of Manon, something that helped the tall veteran relax ever so slightly. Elide headed to the doors leading to the back and the receptionist got up from her desk to let them back. Elide was grateful that she made an effort to open the door slowly, and once they were shown into the small room, she closed the door with great care. 

Manon immediately went to sit in a chair at the fall wall, facing the door and Asterin took up a spot off to the side of the door, while Elide settled in next to Manon. “Should we go through the exercise?”

The pause was long but then Manon inhaled shakily, nodded, and then exhaled in a long shuddering breath. “Yeah.”

“Three things you see, two you hear, one you smell,” Elide coached.

It took a few minutes, but by the time Manon was focused enough to answer that she was smelling her wife’s favorite vanilla body lotion, the shaking in her hands had subsided, and she was taking deeper breaths, the tension in shoulders starting to release. “I’m so sorry to drag you away from court. I know how hard you and Ghislaine and Imogen have been working on this case and-”

“Shhhhhh. It’s ok. It’s just preliminaries, and you know I trust them implicitly. Is it ok if I touch you now?”

Manon finally nodded, and Elide threaded her hand into Manon’s and squeezed. “This is where I need to be. You know how much I love that mutt, I wouldn’t be anywhere else.”

“He’s not a mutt,” Manon huffed wetly, a hand reaching up to scrub at her eyes.

Elide gave her an amused eyeroll. “Yes, yes, he’s a papered, highly trained military officer with more common sense than most people you know,” she repeated, relieved her comment got the reaction she was hoping for. 

“Damn right,” both Asterin and Manon answered, and the tension finally lessened as they all managed weary half smiles. But it disappeared all too quickly, and the room fell into a heavy silence. Elide continued to hold her wife’s hand, her thumb stroking rhythmically across her knuckles in an effort to help keep her grounded. “Are you able to tell me what happened?” 

Manon swallowed, and Elide barely managed to repress her wince as Manon’s grip tightened substantially. “Asterin and I had our workout planned for today. I took Abraxos for a quick warmup run before she got there. We were almost home and crossing the street when a car backfired. I froze in the middle of the fucking street and Abraxos...he...he just...he saved me….”

“To be fair, she had the right of way. Crosswalk and all according to witnesses. Some entitled asshole texting on his cell phone blew right through the light,” Asterin added, a scowl on her face at the offender. “He almost t-boned another car, and ended up taking out two parked cars over correcting. I was on my way over and got there just after it happened. They had him in cuffs cooling in the back of a cruiser when we left.”

Elide looked to Asterin then. “So you saw Abraxos?”

“Look. It wasn’t pretty,” she said bluntly. “His back leg is busted for sure, and it was a bloody mess. But that scrappy runt survived an IED to the snout. I showed up and he had the audacity to still lick my face. I’m sure he’ll be getting spoiled rotten by you in no time and soaking up all the mother henning this one is going to do as soon as they release him.”

Elide released a sigh of hopeful relief, knowing that Asterin was not one to sugar coat things. She looked at Manon then, who appeared to be spiraling though. “Hey, look at me,” she said gently but firmly as slowly raised a hand to cup her wife’s cheek. She coaxed those gold eyes to meet her own dark ones. “This is not your fault.”

“But if-”

“No.” Elide cut her off more sternly. “Remember what Dr. Petrah said. You cannot force your mind to heal from something it was not meant to process to begin with. You cannot help how your body responds when a trigger is activated. And Abraxos did what his training and loyalty taught him to do. Babe, you had one of your worst triggers activated and almost an hour later and you are still managing to keep from having a complete attack despite a highly stressful situation. Do you realize how much progress that is?”

“I-” Manon paused, then looked away. “It doesn’t feel like it.”

“She’s right,” Asterin chimed in. “You went into full command mode and I bet you don’t even realize all that you did, while keeping Abraxos still and stabilized. You had people directing traffic, calling 911, checking on that idiot who wrecked, and making sure there was no fire hazard by the time I showed up...and that was what? Not even 3 minutes later? You didn’t start spiraling until we got here and you started having too much free time to think. And even then you kept it together. Sounds like a pretty decent breakthrough to me.”

Manon slumped back in her seat, obviously not really buying it, but too exhausted to argue with them. Asterin and Elide shared a look, but neither pushed it further. Elide was about to change topics when someone knocked softly on the door. The receptionist poked her head in and gave them a reassuring smile. “I just wanted to let you know the doctor is just wrapping things up, but he wanted me to pass along that while Abraxos is going to have some extensive recovery, he should be just fine. The doctor should be in, in about fifteen minutes to go over more specifics with you.”

“Thank you so much,” Elide said, a feeling of elation running through her. Next to her Manon let out a half sob of relief as well and the receptionist gave them a sympathetic smile and ducked back out.

“Well thank fuck,” Asterin sighed, sagging back in her own seat. 

Elide turned to Manon, tears of joy in her eyes. “He’s going to be ok. Maybe a little more rough around the edges, but he’s going to be ok.”

Manon leaned into her finally, and allowed Elide to fold her arms around her as she gripped tightly to her shirt and sobbed quietly into her shoulder. Asterin caught Elide’s eye and nodded her head to the door and then let herself out silently so they could have a few minutes alone. 

Manon was just managing to pull herself together when Asterin’s signature knock sounded and she strolled back into the room, the vet in tow. He gave them a moment to get settled and then smiled at them. “Hello, I’m Dr. Fenrys Moonbeam,” he said, introducing himself, patiently ignoring the quiet snort from the blonde seated to his right. “First, I just want to reassure you that Abraxos will be just fine. I can see he’s already been through a lot, and when we got his charts from your regular vet, I must say I am very impressed with his resiliency. His...disposition is definitely more friendly than any other retired military K-9 I’ve worked on before,” he grinned.

Despite the emotional roller coaster they’d all been on, everyone including Manon chuckled at that. “They tried their damndest to train that out of him, but when he wasn’t on the job he just wanted to play and sneak treats from everyone,” Manon admitted.

“Well he is definitely still keeping up that trend,” the vet smirked.

Manon turned narrowed eyes on her wife. “I told you he was getting fat.”

Elide just blinked innocently. “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Asterin snorted from the corner once more. “Well healthy appetite aside, he is in great condition given his recently healed injuries, and that will help him get over this next hurdle.” Here he sobered a bit. “You brought him in, so you saw the injury to his back right leg?”

Manon swallowed and nodded, her eyes going to her bloodstained hands. “Well the good news is, the injury was thankfully limited to just that leg. He's got some scuffs and bruises common with this kind of accident of course, but his tail, spine, pelvis, and other leg are ok. No significant internal injuries either.”

“I sense a ‘but’ in there,” Manon stated flatly. 

“We could have attempted to repair his leg, but it was shattered into six different pieces, and none of the breaks were clean. Mobility would have been a chronic issue going forward, and his quality of life might have suffered as a result. The best course of action was to amputate. His recovery will actually be much quicker and less painful.”

“Fuck,” Manon whispered, dropping her head into her hands once more. 

“Unlike us, most animals are not as psychologically impacted by such a procedure,” he was quick to assure. “And honestly, his recovery should go more smoothly than most of my patients given the amount of training and care he has. I know this seems devastating, but he can still have a full and happy life with little to no issue. They of course make prosthetics, but MWD’s are tenacious and I have no doubt he’ll be running three legged circles around you in no time,” he told them in a confident voice, the smile returning to his face.

“When can we see him?” Elide asked for Manon, who’d fallen silent.

“We want to keep him here for a few days for observation and initial wound care. He’s coming out of the anesthesia now and he’ll be loopy for a few hours, but if you want to go back and sit with him for a little bit I can arrange for it.”

“We would appreciate that very much. Is there anything else we need to know?”

“There’s post-surgery details and homecare we will go over with you when he’s ready to be released, but for now all you need to know is that you did a great job stabilizing him and keeping him from bleeding out Mrs. Blackbeak. I don’t know the circumstances surrounding the accident, but believe me when I tell you, these things happen and often it is out of our control. I see this kind of thing at least twice a week and most owners and handlers are responsible people like yourself, who love their companions and would give anything to keep them safe. But that’s not even a guarantee we can make for ourselves. So leave you guilt at that door and just focus on spoiling him when he comes home in a few days….and making sure your wife doesn’t spoil him too much while his activity is limited,” he added with a wink to Elide, who grinned unrepentantly, but also grateful to the keen veterinarian. 

“Yeah, like I’ll have much success with that,” Manon grumbled, a half smile finally lifting her lips again. 

Dr. Moonbeam chuckled. “Give us another fifteen or twenty minutes and I’ll send someone to lead you back.”

As soon as he left, the room descended into another stilted silence. 

Leave it to Asterin to break it with a dramatic sigh. “Well. I didn’t think it possible for that furball to get any fucking uglier.” 

Both Manon and Elide gasped in outrage. “You take that back!” He’s a GOOD. BOY!” were shouted at her in unison, and the blonde just smirked at them.

“Good. Like the doc said. Quit your fucking moping and focus on the future. The runt is alive, apparently getting too many treats already, and is still a big dumb softy. He’s probably back there right now making those stupid sad eyes at every vet and tech that walks by him despite being high as a kite. Once you get him home, I’ll bring Narene over so she can fuss over him too.” Asterin stood from her chair and moved to her cousin and crouched in front of her, her expression going intense as she rested her hands on Manon’s shoulders. 

“He’s going to be ok, and so are you.”

Manon inhaled slowly and then let it out as all the tension finally drained from her body. “He’s going to be ok,” she whispered back.

“And you will too,” Asterin emphasized. 

There was a long pause and Elide squeezed her hand comfortingly. “And I will too,” Manon stated a little more firmly. Her shoulders squared up under her cousin’s grip and she finally held someone’s gaze for longer than a few seconds. 

And for the first time in a long time, that’s when Manon truly felt and meant it. 

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Kudos and comments are always welcome. Come yell at me on tumblr if you want as well! Same username: Firedancer34


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